


The Triumphant Arrival of Phillip Coulson To The Sergeiverse

by cosmicocean



Series: Cousin Sergeiverse [3]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, everyone else is in this but honestly they're pretty periphery so i just left them out of the tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-17
Updated: 2015-08-17
Packaged: 2018-04-15 04:10:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4592397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmicocean/pseuds/cosmicocean
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There’s some guy surrounded mostly by what look like tall children in the Tower.</p><p>(or, Bucky meets Phil Coulson, Melinda May, and their tiny ducklings)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Triumphant Arrival of Phillip Coulson To The Sergeiverse

**Author's Note:**

> This is sort of filler for reasons that'll be explained at the end, but here it is: the return of one Agent Coulson.
> 
> Also keep in mind that my grasp on Agents of SHIELD is super shaky cause it's been a while, but that this takes place some time in between seasons one and two.

There’s some guy surrounded mostly by what look like tall children in the Tower.

The rest of the Avengers flew out to Montana to handle something. Bucky couldn’t go because he broke his ankle last week. It’s nearly all healed thanks to the serum, but everyone decided he couldn’t fight until he healed completely and so he was extremely reluctantly benched.

He’s just returned from talking to Steve in the other room about how the mission went. They’re en route and they should be back in fifteen minutes. They’ve been flying for about an hour. The Quinjet will be installed with a bathroom after this. If Tony doesn’t stop gloating about how he can go to the bathroom in his suit, the rest of the team is going to hold him down while Clint punches him in the face. Hopefully they will all be alive when they come back.

When Bucky came back, there was a middle aged man in a suit standing with a woman of about the same age in an outfit similar to Natasha’s. Clustered around them are two women and two young men. One of the women is standing and whispering to one of the men. The other two look like they’re trying to look unimpressed but mostly failing. The two in charge have inscrutable faces.

Bucky’s pretty good at reading people, and he’s getting a “not here to cause damage” and “I could take them down with my eyes closed” vibe from them. He still looks at them warily.

“Hi,” he says carefully. The man in the suit straightens slightly.

“Sergeant Barnes,” he answers pleasantly.

“You’re not supposed to be here.”

“I’m hoping that once I encounter the rest of the Avengers they will change that tune.” He smiles at Bucky.

Bucky scrutinizes the woman next to him. She meets his gaze levelly. He ratchets her rating up to “she might give me some more trouble than the rest of them”.

“Could I have your names?”

“Certainly. These are Agents May, Fitz, Simmons, Trip, and Skye.” He indicates each of them. “I’m Phil.”

Skye snorts. Trip purses his lips to hide a smile. May gives them both suppressing looks.

“Just Phil, huh?” Bucky asks dryly. The man puts his hands in his pockets.

“That’s me.”

“Uh-huh.” Bucky raises an eyebrow. He’s been taking lessons from Natalia about the numerous ways to express emotions through eyebrows. “Would you and your crew like to sit down, just Phil?”

“We’ll stand, thank you.”

“Speak for yours-“ Skye starts.

“Skye.”

“Come _on_.”

Phil takes a deep breath and Bucky can’t help but feel a kinship for this man corralling tiny children. He feels similarly many times a day.

“Would you like something to eat or drink?” Bucky asks.

“Yes,” Skye immediately answers just before Phil opens his mouth. “We would. Don’t listen to him, he’s a drag.”

“He’s our superior officer,” Simmons hisses.

“Yeeeeah, but he can be both,” Fitz points out.

Bucky kind of likes them. He really hopes he’s not going to have to kill them. “What would you like?” he asks, heading over to the kitchen.

“Something caffeinated,” Skye says, starting to saunter over to Bucky before May catches her sleeve and pulls her back without even looking. “Caffeinated enough to kill me caffeinated.”

Bucky smiles. “I’m not sure we’ve got that. Energy drinks are prohibited in the Tower for, well, lots of reasons and incidents.”

“I believe it,” Phil mutters.

“But I do have Coke.”

“Coke’ll do.”

“You got it.” Bucky pulls out a bottle. “Everybody else?”

“Same,” Trip says. Bucky snags two.

Simmons hesitates. “What do you have?”

“Sparkling water?” She seems like a sparkling water type. He’s proven right when she perks up.

“Ooh, yes please.”

“Fitz?”

Fitz shakes his head. “I’ll split with Jemma.”

Bucky looks at Phil and May and raises his eyebrows in what he hopes is a wry manner. “I assume you two just want to stand there and pretend that you’re too powerful for things like thirst?”

“May will.” Phil smiles as May narrows her eyes at him. “I’d like a Coke too though, please.”

Bucky chucks Phil his. Phil catches it expertly, like Bucky suspected he might. He delivers the rest of them.

“Long journey?” he asks. Skye is struggling with her Coke bottle cap so Bucky takes it from her, easily opens it, and hands it back.

“Oh, you know,” Phil says vaguely.

“I’m not going to get anything out of you, am I?”

“Probably not,” Phil answers agreeably.

“Can I at least get a word out of May?”

Phil’s smile turns a hint more amused. “Good luck.”

Bucky studies them, and allows something to kick in he’s been so far very successfully burying.

It’s been a while since he accessed the part of his brain that has files burned into it, the identities and weaknesses of dangerous people able to be pulled up at a moment’s notice. It’s too close to becoming the Soldier again for Bucky to feel comfortable with.

But these people have shown up unannounced in his home. Sometimes what has to be done has to be done.

Skye, Trip, Simmons, and Fitz are a blank. Phil has a ghost of a file, mentioning only that his full name is _Phillip J. Coulson_ , and that he was a SHIELD agent.

May’s is far more impressive.

He shifts his stance slightly. May shifts hers in response.

“Last time I had SHIELD agents come after me they didn’t like me very much,” Bucky tells them calmly. “We going to have a problem?”

Phil shakes his head. “We’re not here for you, Sergeant Barnes.”

Bucky meets May’s eyes. She doesn’t blink or flinch. “What about you, Cavalry?”

Skye winces. Trip lets out a nearly inaudible sigh. Simmons and Fitz very audibly gasp. Phil doesn’t move a muscle.

May’s demeanor doesn’t change.

“No problem, _Soldier_.” The touch of inflection at the last word tells him all he needs to. Bucky relaxes. May’s muscles become slightly less stiff.

“All right then, Agent May.” Bucky casually lounges in one of the chairs and pulls out his phone. He wants to see if Clint posted any pictures on Instagram of whatever went down in Montana. “Although I would really suggest you guys all sit down, I think you’d be much more comfortable.”

Phil leans over and carefully sets his bottle down on the coffee table. “I think I should be standing for this.”

“Mm’kay.” Bucky flips down his Instagram feed. Steve posted a picture of a dog he thought looked neat that he saw in Montana. What a loser. “Just keep in mind that if you try to harm the Avengers in any way, I will have you choking on your own blood before you take two steps.”

Phil seems unfazed, which appears to be a running trend with him. Bucky appreciates that. It reminds him of Hill, in a way. “I understand.”

“Good.” Bucky types ‘lol what a loser’ in as a comment on Steve’s picture.

“What,” Tony’s voice says loudly from the elevator. “The fuck.”

Bucky looks up. All of the Avengers are crowded in the elevator, Tony at the head.

Phil winces very, very slightly. Then he squares his shoulder to face the Avengers. “Mr. Stark.”

Tony strides down towards Coulson and stands in front of him, glaring.

“I mean it, Coulson.” Tony’s voice is flat and what seems like fury but Bucky suspects is also relief in there? Dissecting Tony’s tones could require a full essay sometimes. “You made Pepper cry.”

Phil grimaces. “I assure you that was not my intention.”

“Fury said you were dead.” Steve strides up to stand next to Tony, arms folded.

“To be fair,” Bruce murmurs as the rest of the Avengers stand behind Steve and Tony. “Fury says lots of things.”

“What the shit, man,” Clint demands angrily. “Were rumors of your death greatly exaggerated or some bullshit?”

“Not quite.”

“You were dead?” Natalia’s face is a mask and her voice is quiet, but Bucky can see her eyes twitch, the way her mouth is folded, and he knows there is a hurricane of emotion going on underneath.

“For a time.”

“Fucking monsters, fucking magic.” Clint stabs a finger right in Coulson’s chest. “Listen, you dick-“

Bucky coughs loudly. Everyone falls silent and turns to look at him.

“I don’t know who this is,” he says clearly. “And I don’t really want to be here for this. So I am going to take his people here who also look like they don’t really want to be here for this and one of you is going to text me when you’re done fighting, and we’ll all come back and try to be as non-awkward as possible. Except for May. I don’t think anything can make May move if she doesn’t want to.”

“Never could,” Natalia murmurs. “Nice to see you’re not dead or HYDRA,” she adds. May inclines her head slightly.

“You as well.”

“Good, we’re going now.”

Skye looks like she might hug him. Steve thinks about it, then nods.

“We’ll let you know.”

“Delightful.”

“Yeah, and while we’re at it, how come you have ducklings?” Tony demands.

“Delightful team name, come on, ducklings.” Bucky motions towards the elevator and they casually try and move as fast as possible towards it without actually running. Bucky immediately slams the “door close” button on the elevator.

“Thank you,” Skye says immediately. “I really don’t want to be part of the weird angry confrontation.”

Bucky hits one of the buttons. “No problem. What exactly went on there?”

They all look at each other.

“So A.C. and the Avengers were kind of bros when the Avengers were first a thing,” Skye begins.

“But then Loki killed Agent Coulson,” Simmons adds.

“But then he was brought back with…” Trip struggles for a second. “The power of alien science, basically.”

“But they didn’t tell the Avengers,” Fitz throws in. “Because of SHIELD clearance stuff.”

“And then the SHIELD shit hit the fan.” Skye’s gesticulating a little now. “And it fell apart, and Fury made Coulson the new director of SHIELD.”

“There’s a new SHIELD now?” Bucky asks. He feels like he should have heard about that.

“You’re pretty much looking at it,” Trip says with a grin.

“So then Coulson thought about it and started trying to figure out how to build the new SHIELD or whatever, and he somehow released the conclusion to tell the Avengers the truth. I don’t know how. Hill may have been involved.”

“Hill knew about this?”

“Yeah.” Simmons grimaces. “I would like to not be present for that, either.”

The doors slide open. Bucky strides out and they tentatively follow.

“Wait,” Skye asks, peeking around. “Is this an _arcade_ room?”

“Arcade floor, really. There’s a bowling alley somewhere around here, too. It’s a good place to hide for a while.”

“You have the _Captain America pinball machine!_ ” Fitz yelps. Simmons groans.

“Oh, Lord.”

“Yeah, Tony thought it was hilarious.”

“They stopped making these in the 80s! It’s in mint condition!” Fitz looks like his brain might melt.

“Tony fixes it whenever it breaks.”

“I didn’t know you were a pinball fan, Fitz.” Trip looks amused.

“I didn’t have friends when I was a teenager, I had pinball,” Fitz shouts excitedly as he runs over to the machine, dragging Simmons. “Come on; watch me get the high score.”

“Joy.”

“Your tone doesn’t match that sentence,” Trip calls after him. Fitz waves at him absently.

“I’m going to go shoot Terminators,” Skye says. “I could use the practice. Does it take quarters or anything?”

“Nah, Tony’s rigged them all that you just need to hit a button. We’d run out of quarters.”

“Cool.” Skye heads off to the shooting games. Trip just stands by Bucky.

“I’ll be impressed if he gets the high score,” Bucky says. “That’s pretty well reserved for Tony.”

“If anyone can do it, man. That kid’s got some serious focus.” Trip grins again.

“You remind me of someone I used to know.” It’s been itching at the back of Bucky’s mind ever since he saw him, like another memory he’d lost but not quite.

Trip’s smile turns a little sad and fond. “You knew my granddad,” he tells him. Bucky stares for another moment and then it clicks.

“I’ll be damned,” he murmurs. “You’re related to Gabe, aren’t you?”

“He always had nothing but good things to say about you and Captain Rogers, sir.”

Bucky shakes his head. “No ‘sir’ing. You’re Gabe’s grandkid. That makes you family. Call me Bucky, and you call him Steve. Or jackass,” he adds as an afterthought. “That usually works for me.”

Trip snorts. “I’ll pass on the last one.”

“Fair choice. Come on. You’re going to try and beat me at air hockey while I tell you stories that you bet your ass your grandfather never mentioned.”

 

When Bucky gets the text that it’s all clear to come up, Fitz has gotten the top three high scores on Captain America pinball, Skye’s gotten all the scores on the Terminator shooting game, Simmons has proven herself scarily adept at any game that involves racing, and Trip and Bucky have moved on from air hockey to skeeball.

“I feel like we should get tickets,” Trip tells Bucky on the elevator ride up. “At least to wrap ourselves in so we can prove how awesome we are.”

“I’ll pass that along.”

When the elevator doors open, it’s to relative quiet. Tony is fixing Phil a drink, animatedly talking about something too fast for Bucky to have any interest in picking up on. May and Natalia are playing chess. Thor is playing Wii Tennis with Clint. Bruce is asleep on the couch, which isn’t an uncommon sight after a battle- the Hulk wears him out. Sam is sitting on a chair, flipping through his phone. Bucky approaches him.

“How’d it go?” he asks. Sam wiggles his hand.

“Really ugly for a bit and then really not,” he answers. “Honestly for the most part I tried to sit in the corner playing Candy Crush. From what I understand Pepper is going to destroy Coulson and Tony is seriously going to chew out Hill.”

Bucky winces a little. The Pepper thing does not sound like fun.

“Oh hey, the ducklings are back,” Tony observes. “Where did you run off to?”

“Arcade floor.”

“You know that Fitz is a pinball wizard?” Trip asks. “We had to pry him away from the Captain America machine.”

Steve groans as he comes back in evidently from a shower, toweling his hair. “One of these days you’ll get rid of that thing.”

“Hmmm, nope. I’m going to die and then have it welded to the Tower.” Tony flashes Steve a grin which is returned with a glare.

Phil’s frowning at Tony. “I’ve been trying to get my hands on one of those for years.”

“Tough breaks.” Tony claps him on the shoulder. “Maybe one day I’ll let you try and beat my high score, Zombie Coulson.”

“Your high score is now the fourth highest score,” Bucky tells Tony over Phil’s protesting noise over “zombie Coulson”. “Fitz here has the three highest.”

“ _What?_ ” Tony looks horrified. “This has to be rectified.”

“Yeah,” Natalia says distantly, scrutinizing the chessboard. “You really don’t want to mess with Stark’s obsessive compulsive desire to be the best at all things.”

“Hey, you know what, bite me, Romanoff.”

“Don’t tempt me.”

“She’ll do it!” Clint yells from a backhand that is more elaborate than necessary. “I have the scars to prove it!”

“I didn’t need to know that much about your sex life, Barton!”

Clint then manages to flip Tony off while doing an overhead. It’s a little impressive.

Phil is watching all of them with an air of exasperation and fondness. Bucky sticks his hands in his pockets and ambles over to him.

“You think they’re exhausting _now_ ,” he says. “Wait till you see bowling nights.”

**Author's Note:**

> So the reason that this is filler is cause I have another story planned, in which it is Bucky's first Halloween at the Tower and his first time experiencing the flurry of the Avengers trying to out awesome each other with Halloween costumes. Phil is supposed to be in that one and I wanted to explain when he showed up instead of having random Phil and none of the Avengers being like "hey weren't you dead a couple of movies ago?"
> 
> Tl;dr, that's why this isn't on par with the other Sergeiverse stuff but better is coming.
> 
> Also I would love to write a whole story about Steve and Bucky sort of adopting Trip into the fold and getting to know all the other relatives of the Howling Commandos.


End file.
